Group items tagged

Olivia Gardner, a northern California teenager, was severely taunted and cyber-bullied by her classmates for more than two years. News of her bullying spread, eventually reaching two teenage girls from a neighboring town, sisters Emily and Sarah Buder. The girls were so moved by Olivia's story that they initiated a letter-writing campaign to help lift her spirits. It was a tender gesture of solidarity that set off an overwhelming chain reaction of support, encouragement, and love. In Letters to a Bullied Girl, Olivia and the Buder sisters share an inspiring selection of messages that arrived from across America-the personal, often painful remembrances of former targets, remorseful bullies, and sympathetic bystanders. Letters to a Bullied Girl examines our national bullying epidemic from a variety of angles and perspectives, and includes practical guidance from bullying expert Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander. Though addressed to Olivia, the letters speak to all young people who have been bullied, offer advice and hope to those who suffer, and provide a wake-up call to all who have ever been involved in bullying.

There is also a video interview with the Buder sisters on this site.

As teens across the country head back to school this year, far too many of them are facing the entrance doors to their schools with feelings of fear, trepidation and dread. For an increasing number of students across the nation, schooldays are filled with the never-ending cycle of taunting and abuse from their bullies. But this year, in an unprecedented display of solidarity, thousands of strangers who have been through the same harrowing experiences, are sharing their private tales of torment with these teens for the first time ever because of the story of Olivia Gardner.

A bullying/cyberbullying bill (similar to the one that passed in California in 2009) became legislation in Massachusetts this week. It requires training of teachers and students, reporting and investigation into cyberbullying incidents by school administrators if the bullying incidents that take place on campus, at school-sponsored events or bullying that affects the school environment.

Students, tell us what you think about the Phoebe Prince case and about your experiences with bullying. Why do you think students bully others? How can bullying be lessened or stopped? What, if anything, can teachers do? Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever bullied other kids? What is the climate like at your school - are students harassed and taunted? What can you do when you see another student being bullied?

In 101 Facts about Bullying, Dr. Robin D'Antona and Dr. Meline Kevorkian have crafted a down-to-earth and useful guide to a number of basic facts about bullying, its causes, and its consequences. Kevorkian systematically discusses topics ranging from relational bullying to cyber bullying to media and video violence to the legal ramifications of bullying, debunking myth and uncloaking the facts about bullying and its prevention.

THE mother of a former student at the prestigious Sydney girls' school embroiled in a cyber-bullying scandal has spoken out about the claimed culture of intimidation at Ascham. The woman said yesterday, on condition of anonymity, that her daughter had been forced to leave the school after becoming the target of bullies."There is a culture of bullying at the school which has been going on for years," she said. "These days it is cyber bullying, when my daughter was there it was text messages."

Have you ever been the victim of a bully? Ever stand silent and let a bully pick on someone? Most people wouldn't consider bullying a crime -- but it could be creating criminals right before our very eyes. A study from a group called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids concluded that nearly 60 percent of boys whom researchers classified as bullies in grades 6-9 were convicted of at least one crime by the age of 24. And get this, 40 percent of those same boys grew up to have three or more criminal convictions. In other words, today's bully could be tomorrow's criminal.

A Look At The Cyberbully. This study confirms other studies (Opinion Research, (2006) on the prevalence of cyberbullying in that about a third (29%) admitted to being bullied with half of them reporting that additional bullying accompanied the initial cyberbullying. Research finds a connection between bullies, cyberbullies and their victims. Bullies, compared to non-bullies, were more likely to be cyberbullies; while victims of physical bullying were more likely to be victims of cyberbullying

An online bullying survey was completed by 216 students - 93.7 percent were freshmen- enrolled in the University Experience classes at Kansas State University. The goal of the survey was to determine if bullying behavior followed students from high school into college and how freshmen perceived bullying. The survey used the cyberbullying definition provided in Kansas' anti-bullying law, which took effect in January 2008 and was revised in July to include cyberbullying. The law requires schools to develop anti-bullying policies, plans and preventative measures. Cyberbullying is the use of any electronic communication device, such as e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, blogs, mobile phones, pages, online games or Web sites, to create an intimidating, threatening or abusive environment.

HB 669 prohibits the bullying or harassment, including cyber bullying, of any public K-12 student or employee. It requires the Department of Education to adopt a model policy to prohibit bullying and harassment and directs all school districts to adopt a similar policy. School districts are directed to work with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and local law enforcement on developing this policy. School districts will be required to report all instances of bullying or harassment and to notify the parents of the bully and the parents of the victim.

Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985, states that the intent of the Legislature in enacting its provisions is to encourage school districts, county offices of education, law enforcement agencies, and agencies serving youth to develop and implement interagency strategies, in-service training programs, and activities that will, among other things, reduce school crime and violence, including bullying. Existing law establishes the School/Law Enforcement Partnership and charges it with undertaking several efforts intended to reduce school crime, as specified,including bullying.

This bill would specify that bullying, as used in these provisions,means one or more acts by a pupil or a group of pupils directed against another pupil that constitutes sexual harassment, hate violence, or severe or pervasive intentional harassment, threats, or intimidation that is disruptive, causes disorder, and invades the rights of others by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment, and includes\nacts that are committed personally or by means of an electronic act, as defined.

Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the principal determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts, including, but not limited to, hazing, as defined. This bill, in addition, would give school officials grounds to suspend a pupil or recommend a pupil for expulsion for bullying, including, but not limited to, bullying by electronic act.

A new state law in Kentucky now requires the state Board of Education to develop disciplinary guidelines for bullying. Under the bullying law, the legal definition of harassment would be changed to include student behavior that causes physical harm, intimidation or humiliation for fellow students. The AB 91 law also says bullying can be done and cause harm to a student through the Internet, phone or by mail. It also elevates bullying to a criminal offense - a class B misdemeanor.

As students across the country return to school, school districts face an often complicated and confusing legal landscape on how to deal with cyber bullies in their schools, according to Todd DeMitchell, EdD, a professor of education, who studies school liability, adequate supervision, and responses to preventing bullying and cyber bullying from school administrators and state legislatures.

While reports and stories in the media focusing on Internet predators have become all too frequent, the closer-to-home threat to our children may really be cyberbullying, also known as electronic or online bullying. A recent survey of 395 students (11 to 19 years old) found that 28% of students have been cyberbullied, and more than 1 in 7 admitted to acting as the bully."Cyberbullying could be the biggest online threat facing teens today," says James Leasure, co-founder of Pandora Corp. "Of course Internet predators do still exist, but statistically, kids have a much greater chance of being involved in some way with electronic bullying." Most cases of cyberbullying go undocumented because, fortunately, many kids are able to shrug off the 'unkind words' and look the other way. But there are some cases that make national headlines when they turn into tragedies, such as the Megan Meier case in 2006. Larger cases like this have prompted several states to adopt legislation that makes online bullying illegal.

Bullying is a problem at every level of education. Every school has its own way to address the problem, but are these techniques effective? Do they ever make a deep impression on the students? Does the bullying ever go away? Not Likely. My school is no different from any other; we have implemented programs to combat bullying, but the bullying persists. Then, after experimenting with some new software, I got the idea to make bullying awareness important and exciting for my third-and fourth-grade students by having them create comic strips using Comic Life, one of the new programs available for Macs. With the aid of ready-made templates, word bubbles, pictures, etc. its users easily create a comic strip.

This week begins National Bullying Prevention Month, and CNN's "AC360°" along with Cartoon Network, PEOPLE Magazine and CNN.com are exploring the problem of bullying and cyberbullying in depth. What is bullying? Why do kids do it? What can be done to put an end to it? Take a look at CNN's week-long coverage of the issues.

Many young people keep quiet about online bullying for fear they will not be allowed to keep using computers, says a bullying expert. Dr Shaheen Shariff, who leads an international cyber-bullying project from McGill University in Montreal, said more than half of young people with internet access would encounter online bullying as a victim, a perpetrator or a bystander. But almost two thirds admitted they would not report it because they feared losing computer privileges. Most children thought there was nothing adults could do to help anyway, said Dr Shariff, who was in Queenstown this week to speak at a Netsafe online safety conference.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is the most researched and the best-known bullying prevention program available today. * Proven to reduce bullying by up to 70% * Significant reductions in student reports of general antisocial behavior, such as vandalism, fighting, theft, and truancy\n * Significant improvements in the social climate of the classroom and student satisfaction with school life

See Cyber Bullying in the Digital Age. All three authors are clinical psychologists and Olweus Bullying prevention trained. They apply their expertise in this area to online problems related to cybersafety. Dr. Patty Afgatson works with over 100 schools in Cobb County School District, a suburb of Atlanta, GA.

Cyber Bullying has gained national attention in the case of Phoebe Prince, an irish immigrant attending South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Though this case has shed new light on the issues of cyber bullying, there are many cases of what has been dubbed "bullycide" where students bullied both on and off line have taken their lives. Regardless of where the bullying is taking place, it is still an issue that must be dealt with on every level in order to prevent further tragedies.

A bill passed earlier this year makes it mandatory for Pennsylvania school districts to have a written anti-bullying policy in place beginning next year.